A problem typically encountered during mixing sessions carried out in a sound studio arises when several persons (for instance one or more sound engineers and one or more artists listening to recordings of a performance) listen to playbacks of recordings over monitor loudspeakers which are typically located above the back edge of the mixing console. During such sessions the persons listening to the recordings may for instance be seated along the front of the mixing console, i.e. at various positions relative to a line extending between a set of loudspeakers in a traditional stereophonic reproduction set-up, and some of the persons may even be moving around in the mixing room. Due to the directional characteristics of the loudspeakers especially at high frequencies, the listeners located at different positions relative to the loudspeakers will perceive undesirable timbral variations and variations in the perceived sound image, such variations possibly also originating from sound reflections from the upper surface of the mixing console, etc. It is hence desirable to devise loudspeakers with radiation characteristics that will at least reduce such problems. It would furthermore be advantageous to be able to adapt the directional characteristics of the loudspeaker to the individual conditions prevailing in a specific mixing room, and to be able to choose between different orientations and locations of the cabinet of the loudspeaker without unwanted changes of the radiating pattern in the listening region of the room.
Especially during the last decade digital sound processing software for personal computers have become widespread, making it relatively simple and economic for instance for a professional artist or producer to set up his own “home studio” or other listening facility making it possible during a sound production to supplement listening sessions carried out in a sound studio with listening sessions carried out at home. It is, however, vitally important that the reproduced sound as far as possible has the same acoustical characteristics during listening sessions at home and in the studio, and at least one of the prerequisites for this is substantially similar characteristics of the monitor loudspeakers in the two places or at least substantially similar reproduction of those sound attributes that are decisive for the attainment of a desired sound image for instance during a mixing session.